Ashley Blake life story: Day three

She’d asked to celebrate there and, at first, Ashley and Jess had refused – they knew the difficulties of deciding who was of age to drink and who was too young to serve when the bar was packed with youngsters.

ASHLEY’S horror started with a birthday party held at The Place 2 B for 18-year-old waitress Rachel’s birthday.

She’d asked to celebrate there and, at first, Ashley and Jess had refused – they knew the difficulties of deciding who was of age to drink and who was too young to serve when the bar was packed with youngsters.

Then they relented because they reckoned Rachel, who’d been with them since she was 16, was a staff asset.

Everything went well. The party started at 7.30pm with everyone in good spirits.

Then, at 2am, the lights went down and the celebrants began to walk towards the car park.

Ashley picks up his side of the story: “One lad was moaning that his glass had been taken before he’d finished his drink, he wasn’t aggressive and off he went.

“Then a regular punched the chap moaning about his unfinished beer and knocked him out, although I didn’t see this.

“Then the punched kid’s mates attacked the regular and knocked him to the ground,” he claimed.

“He was dragged back to the restaurant and the group tried to follow him in to continue the attack.

“Mario, my Albanian doorman, tried to calm things down but, because we wouldn’t let them in, they started shoving and pushing. We were trying to push them back.

“By this time they were calling Mario ‘Polish Scum’ and me a ‘Nigger’ and ‘black bastard’.

“There were about 25 to 30 of them and they picked up glasses and bottles from the smoking area and chucked them at us.

“I went to tell Matt to call the police and I got the pole we kept behind the bar to secure the front door.

“When I got back to Mario, he was surrounded and holding a garden table like a shield.

“As I grabbed him to pull him back they’d started breaking up garden furniture – they must have felt huge rage to tear up the furniture like that.

“I said ‘We’re going to get killed here’.

“I simply don’t remember hitting anyone although I was swinging the pole.

“The next thing was the police arriving and I took them upstairs to collect the CCTV monitor.

“We couldn’t get it to work so they took it with them.

“I had a cigarette and Mario said something like ‘What have you done with the pole?’ I took it from the bar and threw it into my garden.

“Back upstairs, I was told I was being arrested on suspicion of assault. I was shocked because I felt I was the victim of about 25 drunken youths.

“By now it was 2.45am and I was taken to Sutton Coldfield police station where I stayed until 11.30pm the following night.

“I thought it would all be sorted out. But I was charged and my world smashed apart.”

Ashley was found guilty at Birmingham Crown Court of unlawful wounding and attempting to pervert the course of justice. He was acquitted of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

The man hit in the face by the pole was 17-year-old Greg Jones, who believes he will be scarred for life.

The trial Judge Peter Carr, said Mr Jones had been doing nothing wrong and had been trying to act as a peacemaker.

Ashley was taken off-air when he was charged, suspended, then sacked from the BBC when found guilty.

Prior to being jailed Blake apologised for attacking Mr Jones in an exclusive interview in the Birmingham Mail.

He said the violence happened so quickly it “resulted in a young man getting hurt in the chaos.”

He added: “It was not my intention to hurt anyone whilst defending myself and others and for that I am truly sorry.”